For several months now local residents have been following a news story about a series of vehicle accidents involving Erie County Sheriff Department’s Chief of Narcotics, D.J. Granville. Kudos to the local TV stations, particularly WGRZ-TV, and Investigative Post and the Buffalo News.
The basic information that has been reported is that Sheriff Department Chief Granville on the evening of April 11, 2024, was driving an Erie County-owned pickup truck assigned to him which apparently allowed him take home privileges due to the nature of his work. On that evening Granville struck a total of seven vehicles on two different streets on the west side of Buffalo. There is private video of some of the accidents. A total of $60,000 in damage claims followed from the accidents.
Reports indicate that six Buffalo Police officers arrived on the scene to assess the damages and Granville’s role in the accidents. Media stories have indicated that there were no body cam videos, that no breathalyzer test was administered, and that Granville was given a ticket for jaywalking. The Buffalo PD report was prepared by Buffalo PD Lt. Lucia Esquilin, who happens to be Granville’s sister-in-law.
Since the reporting on the story began in early April 2025 we have learned that the Buffalo PD has been conducting an internal investigation into the accidents. The Erie County District Attorney transferred any legal proceedings to the Niagara County DA due to a conflict of interest in the case. The Erie County Legislature and the Buffalo Common Council have been attempting without success to get information about the responsibility of the County for paying the settlements for the accident damage and to determine if the Buffalo PD handled the issues properly. Commissioner Alphonso Wright has been deferring comment while the investigation is ongoing.
Erie County Sheriff John Garcia, Granville’s boss, has basically been taking the Sargent Schultz “I know nothing” position on the issues. That is strange because as Sandra Tan indicated in Sunday’s Buffalo News Sheriff Department policy is that “crashes involving county-owned vehicles are supposed to be reported by the driver and investigated by Sheriff’s Office personnel. In past cases where crashes have involved sheriff’s deputies in the city, the Buffalo Police Department has called in the Sheriff’s Office for follow up.”
Police agencies are certainly right to conduct careful investigations. I am certainly not a detective. It does seem, however, that there are some very simple facts and questions that could pretty quickly get to the bottom of this whole thing:
- There has been no dispute that Granville caused the accidents, which did $60,000 in damages to seven vehicles.
- There were six Buffalo PD present at the accident who should be available to investigators to answer basic questions about Granville’s physical condition that night.
- The question of whether or not Granville was on duty that evening should be quickly and easily determined based on County payroll records created by the Sheriff’s office and submitted to county personnel and legal offices. If Granville was off duty then he may be responsible for the $60,000 in accident claims.
- It seems logical that Granville, immediately after the accidents, would have a duty to inform his boss, Garcia, about what happened.
All of these issues, however, have continued in suspended animation for months now. The Sheriff has continued to talk about the transparency in his office but a lack of action speaks louder that his words.
So here is a perhaps silly thought: what if the person at the center of this whole controversy, D.J. Granville, decided to just simply accept responsibility for his actions? It could go like this: “I would like to bring this whole situation to a close. I was driving the vehicle that caused the damage to seven vehicles on two different streets in Buffalo on the evening of April 11, 2024. I accept responsibility for my actions. I will accept any legal consequences that may follow from my actions”. Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen.
Sheriff Garcia is running unopposed for re-election and has a campaign treasury of more than $550,000. It is really easy these days to write-in a candidate on an election ballot.
A footnote on the campaign financial reports post
I posted a story last week on campaign financial reports that state Board of Elections regulations require for all political committees. All candidates for office must register their committee with the state BOE. The financial reports of the committees were due on July 15. I noted that I would provide any updates to my post.
The two committees that needed updating were for two of the three candidates for mayor of Buffalo.
Independent candidate Michael Gainer’s report was on the BOE website on July 16, after my story posted. It showed a small amount of funds raised and spent. In my July 16th post I noted that the Republican-Conservative candidate James Gardner did not even have a committee registered for his campaign, which all committees are required to have.
Gardner was endorsed by the Republicans on February 26th, leaving him more than four months to register his committee. His failure to do so parallels his campaign during that stretch of time. He was essentially absent from public campaign activity even though the city is going through an impending financial crisis while generally dealing with other issues such as housing, public safety, education, and those damn potholes.
WGRZ-TV’s Nat Benson in late February did report that Gardner as mayor would be looking to bring total city spending down to the level that existed in 2020, which Benson stated would require a cut of $70 million from current spending.
My second review of the BOE filings showed that on July 17th, the day after my post, Gardner registered his political committee listing his home address as the address of the committee. As of July 22nd, however, there still is no actual report on the BOE website identifying Gardner’s receipts and expenditures from late February through July 11.
Bluesky @kenkruly
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